Keyword Domains and Mini-Sites (Gary Taylor)

PushON | September 4th 2010

Gary starts by asking who owns any domains – to which practically everyone puts their hands up.

He goes on to explain he is someone who buys, sells and develops domains. He works with OneResult web and mobile solutions as a project manager, and won young entrepreneur of the year in the 2008 Midlands business awards.

– small websites, only a few pages maybe 1-10
– keyword specific that focus on the domain domain with few variations
– easy to replicate, built with simple HTML and CSS
– easy to maintain, with minimal content creation ongoing, etc
– cost effective, with no high graphic design costs, etc

You don’t want a portfolio of 200 domain names that you have to work constantly on, they need to be self sustaining.

– do you want to dominate a niche? you could register lots of variants of a keyword domain you already have
– diversify: you could maybe add geolocations to current domains (airport parking manchester, liverpool, etc)
– lead generation
– build a network of related domains
– target long tail domains
– affiliate programs
– think about the after-market (which sites can you sell a domain name on? etc)
– maybe go more generic with your keyword domains
– white labelling

Kevin Ham owns the most domains out of anyone, making $70 million per year.

Questions and Answers

Hyphenated domains – he isn’t particuarly keen on them, but has had domains that have ranked well. The resell value of hyphenated domains isn’t as high as without.

Paid traffic – there are issues with Google not allowing you to advertise as it may see you site as spammy. Use long tail keywords to gain SEO organic traffic as oppose to spending money on PPC.

.org.uk domains – he is a fan of .org.uk domains for UK search, and is a good alternative to .co.uk. If you are looking for more international – chose .org over .net, with .com being the obvious first choice. Stay away from the lower end, such as .me.uk and other low quality TLDs.

Selling 1 word keyword domains – domainers usually sell to domainers, and are not particularity bought by end users. SEO agencies could be missing a trick, and domainers could strike up partnerships with agencies to develop mini-sites for the benefit of SEO clients (end users).

Resell value of a .org vs .com – .org domains sell for a lot less typically, he wouldn’t expect a .org to go for more than 1/5th of the price of a .com.

Leasing domains – he thinks it’s becoming more popular over the past few years, especially for .com domains. There is venue to be made from it as some starter businesses may not have the capitol to develop a domain. If you have a desirable domain name, leasing it out could be a very sensible option.

Trademarks – stay away from any domains with trademarks, as you will ultimately end up in a dispute and 9 out of 10 times will have the domain taken away from you.